Marc Kaplan

Was driving last night, clear night and car was just cleaned, and I received this warning and my Distronic became disabled. Once I stopped and restarted the car a few hours later, everything was fine.
Anyone else have this experience?

haibieb

No, I have never experienced your issue. But knowing MB, the re-start normally solves 99% of the electronic glitches.

petee1997

I get it immediately after a car wash if it's cold and water freezes on the car. It usually doesn't last more than an hour.

haibieb

I would have the issue checked by the dealer just to make sure that it is not moisture that is getting into some of the electronics of the sensors.

baadmon

I typically have that message appear and press the enter button on the steering wheel and it goes away with no issues. Mercedes!

ygmn

Could be a bug smashed into it.
but it happens.
Happens to me in real heavy FOG and rain....guess it gets too much water on it.

had a bug cover one up and all I needed to do was clean it.

Egonvdv

yeah, twice during heavy rain.

Phil Clarke

The first message started on the first week of ownership. I have approx 106 photographs of this message. I say this because Merceds pretend that this is normal and that there is no problem. However, on operation, the fault disengages the brake assist system, from 5 to 120mins.
I have complained and am getting no where with mercedes, they are treating me as if I am making it up, hence the photographs taken by passengers.
It happens far more regularly but when I am by myself, so no pictures.
Absolutely appalled by Mercedes, this my third car, I have gone from loving the brand to loathing the service.....

HAILERS2

I've gotten it on two CL550'S and one S550 Coupe. The message does not bother me in the least but the Distronic Cruise Control drops out when I get that message (Distronic not available plus other items not available) and it pisses me off.

If I keep on driving with my foot the message and cruise control re-engage after ??? ten minutes or so give or take. Also pulling off the the side of the road and turning the car off and then restarting the car will let the Distronic re-engage but it'll drop out after a while once again

Heavy rain will also make the message come up and Distronic drop out once again only to re-engage after a ten or more minutes.

If you get that message and it does not cause Distronic to drop out........who the heck cares?

I drove back from Ca to TX yesterday in a E450 Wagon and got a somewhat similar message that effected zippity and I just cleared the message and pressed on.

I had a '07 XK Jaguar that the Adaptive Cruise Control would periodically drop out and that's where I learned stopping the car and restarting it would solve the 'problem'. Great cars Jaguars imho. I had no Real problems with them.

ua549

When I clean my car I also put Maguiar's Ultimate Quik Wax (a polymer) on the Distronic antenna. It is so slippery that nothing sticks to it. I've never had a dropout even in torrential tropical downpours.

Jcrew

Great tip! I’ll give this a try.

BenzC400

I got the “Radar Sensors Dirty” message yesterday. Distronic would not work. After about 10 minutes of driving, I was able to use Distronic agin. The weather was good and there was no visible dirt on the sensor when I checked. I had gotten that message once before on a C400. That time it was accurate. The sensor was completely covered with ice and snow.

Hrada2020

This happens to me a lot. Most common at stop lights and Starbucks drive through. Must be something to do with other sensors in the area that set off the Gwagon sensors. I have asked the tech at Mercedes several times about it and they just shrug their shoulders and say, "its other competing radar or something that sets them off."
If anyone has any luck let me know. Very annoying.

sflguy4u2

This happened to me twice in last 2 weeks on my 2021 E350. I had to just touch each sensor and then it worked. So ridiculous....I have had a lot of issues with the technology warnings....many messages that they aren't working. The dealership says unless its happening when I bring it in they can't do anything. Have had 5 E Class over the years......This one is the worst

theorangeman

I just bought a GLB 250 two days ago. Today for the first time, I got this message and several safety features were disabled. Fortunately, 5 minutes later things were working again. This is concerning to me with a new vehicle and seeing other people experiencing these issues.

CaliBenzDriver

My forum browser offered me to read this thread... it is odd that dealers keep acting like you guys are making up stories. Independent dealers know every system fault is automatically logged and archived with all relevant data. It's hard to ignore with a poker face.

The one thing missing here is someone having scanned for DTC codes. Which system is logging these transient glitches ... not everyone is going to get identical fault. These systems have more than one way to disfunction and let you know when they are ready to get serviced.

The more bugs get expelled from these cars, the better EVERYTHING work (engine, tranny, steering, brakes, doors,... & RADARS!) -

Elvisfan0108

When I was shopping for a Mercedes 4 years ago. I test drove 2 1 year old cars with distronic. Both had error messages when I turned on the cruise. 1even went into limp mode. I bought a Bmw instead. So far on this car no problems. Of course if it’s raining or snowing, I don’t use cruise.

theorangeman

I hope I don't have many regular issues with the distronic adaptive cruise because that's probably the most important safety feature to me and one I use the most in my commute from Tampa to Orlando.

boomerfss

Happening to me as well. I think it is because the cruise control is tied into the adaptive cruise control so if the "sensors" are dirty they can't detect other vehicles with the radar. So for some reason you can't just use cruise control without the "adaptive" part. This is really pissing me off. I bought it to do long drives. No cruise control is a deal breaker for me and may have to start looking at other brands.

CaliBenzDriver

The cruise control works reliably but you need to have everything under control... humming.
If you can't diagnose your car with a scanner have it serviced.

Distro+ is great in traffic jam crawl

boomerfss

If I had known you can't disable adaptive cruise control I would not have bought the car. I just did a 300 mile drive and couldn't use cruise control for 200 miles of it. Can't believe you can't just use the cruise control without the adaptive part.

Mac Jones 55

Why not? I've not found any issues. Without a vehicle present it defaults to regular cruise control. I'm curious as to your issue.

It's extremely useful to me, and works almost flawlessly. Setting it is a little glitchy at times, but I'm new to it, and it's not an issue, comparatively.

issues with it: cornering might be tricky. Having it set high and coming up to a much slower vehicle can be abrupt (under some conditions).

That's all, so far.

boomerfss

There is no "regular" cruise control if you have the distronic "intelligent drive" package. I've trad about it in other forums and the Mercedes tech I spoke to today says it's a known issue and they are working on a software fix. Some of the highways I drive on you don't see a car for long periods of time.

Mac Jones 55

Strange. Mine has 2022 'Driver Assistance Package'. Active Distance Assist DISTRONIC

"A Mercedes-Benz innovation, Active Distance Assist DISTRONIC® cruise control uses radar-based technology to adapt your set speed in response to the flow of traffic ahead. If traffic slows down, it can reduce your speed automatically until your path clears. If the vehicle ahead slows to a stop, it can brake to a full halt. When traffic moves, you can resume with just a tap of the accelerator or cruise control resume button, or it can resume automatically if the stop is under three seconds."

No mention of a manual mode. I would like to extend the 3 second limit. Where I live, that's a bit optimistic

boomerfss

Weird. I'm in Canada. Different package? The description is the same and yes it does work well in traffic. Ironically it's the lack of traffic that it has an issue with. Hopefully the software fix comes out soon. Another long lonely drive coming up in a few weeks. Intelligent Drive Package

$3,000.00

Intelligent Drive Package

• Active Distance Assist DISTRONIC
• Active Steering Assist
• Evasive Steering Assist
• Active Blind Spot Assist

• Active Lane Keeping Assist
• Active Lane Change Assist
• Active Brake Assist with Cross-Traffic Function
• Congestion Emergency Braking
• Active Emergency Stop Assist
• PRE-SAFE Impulse Side
• PRE-SAFE PLUS
• Route-based Speed Adaptation
• Enhanced Stop-and-Go
• Active Stop-and-Go Assist
• Active Speed Limit Assist